December 1, 2023
REGENERATION – 100th Anniversary – AFI Catalog Spotlight
This December, the AFI Catalog looks back 100 years to spotlight the centennial release anniversary of REGENERATION (1923), a landmark film notable for featuring an entirely Black cast and for catching the attention of both Black and white audiences alike. Billed as a "romance in the south seas,” REGENERATION titillated viewers as much as it...
November 1, 2023
Dorothy Dandridge – AFI CATALOG SPOTLIGHT
This November, the AFI Catalog shines a spotlight on actress, singer and dancer Dorothy Dandridge, who would have turned 101 this month. Starring in the seminal musical with an all-Black cast, CARMEN JONES (1954), Dandridge became the first African American performer to be nominated for a leading role with a Best Actress Oscar® nomination, and...
August 31, 2023
THE BIG CHILL’s 40th Anniversary – AFI Catalog Spotlight
This September, in the remaining summer heat, the AFI Catalog cools down by spotlighting THE BIG CHILL, which was released 40 years ago this month. Included on AFI’s 100 YEARS…100 SONGS list for its use of The Temptations’ version of “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” THE BIG CHILL achieved vast success at the box office...
August 1, 2023
AMERICAN GRAFFITI – AFI Catalog Spotlight
In honor of back to school this month, AFI shines a spotlight on AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973), which follows a group of teenagers on their last night of summer vacation and celebrates its 50th release anniversary this August. Included on AFI’s 100 YEARS…100 MOVIES list of the greatest American films of all time, and AFI’s 100...
June 30, 2023
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES – AFI Catalog Spotlight
In honor of Disability Pride Month, the AFI Catalog shines a spotlight on THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946), the first film in which a person with a visible physical disability, World War II veteran Harold Russell, was honored with an unprecedented two Academy Awards® for the same role, Best Supporting Actor and an...
June 1, 2023
Alla Nazimova – AFI Catalog Spotlight
In celebration of LGBTQIA+ Pride Month, the AFI Catalog shines a spotlight on the trailblazing queer actress Alla Nazimova, who would have celebrated her 144th birthday this June 4. Hailed by modern scholars as “the founding mother of Sapphic Hollywood,” Nazimova was known as a brilliant artiste and non-conformist, who performed in over 20 films in her time,...
May 1, 2023
ENTER THE DRAGON – AFI Catalog Spotlight
In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the AFI Catalog shines a spotlight on Bruce Lee’s final and most successful film, ENTER THE DRAGON (1973), which was released 50 years ago this August just one month after Lee’s untimely death at age 32. Made for a slim budget of $850,000, with grosses...
April 3, 2023
SOYLENT GREEN – AFI Catalog Spotlight
This April marks the 50th release anniversary of the dystopian ecological thriller and cult classic SOYLENT GREEN (1973), which imagined the state of the world in 2022 with overpopulation, global warming and the vast discrepancy between rich and poor. Based in part on the 1966 novel “Make Room! Make Room!” by Harry Harrison, SOYLENT GREEN...
February 1, 2023
WATTSTAX – AFI Catalog Spotlight
This February, the AFI Catalog shines a spotlight on the landmark musical performance documentary WATTSTAX which was released 50 years ago this month. The film presents footage of what became known as the “Black Woodstock,” a seven-hour, August 1972 concert called Wattstax organized by Memphis’ Stax Records to commemorate the Watts Uprising of 1965 and...
January 6, 2023
AFI Releases Landmark Study About the Contributions of Women to Early Cinema
Initiative Documents Hundreds of Previously Unrecorded Female Filmmakers for Film History Today, AFI released the results of their groundbreaking gender study focused on silent era films. The project, titled Women They Talk About after the 1928 feature film, is an initiative documenting the widely unrecorded contributions of female filmmakers in the silent film era and...
January 3, 2023
Butterfly McQueen – AFI Catalog Spotlight
This January, the AFI Catalog shines a spotlight on actress Butterfly McQueen, who would have celebrated her 112th birthday this month. During the Golden Age of American cinema, McQueen was often relegated to stereotypical roles of domestic servants, but she continued to work sporadically through the late-1980s and earned a Daytime Emmy Award® for her...
December 1, 2022
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE – AFI Catalog Spotlight
This December, the AFI Catalog shines a spotlight on the beloved Christmas classic IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, which premiered this month in 1946 and has remained high on AFI’s lists of the best films ever made, including #1 on AFI’s 100 YEARS…100 CHEERS list of the most inspiring films of all time. Although it received mixed reviews upon...
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